We often read and hear about tragic road accidents in Fiji and news about road fatalities around the world and it always catches our attention when a celebrity gets into a fatal accident especially when its someone whose life has been in the limelight for a while.
Take for example the death of the late Diana, Princess of Wales in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997. The news hit the world like an unexpected nightmare living most heartbroken and dismayed.
It would be good to read a little about the celebrities who survived serious car accidents and the type of injuries they sustained during the crash.
Website www.grandparents.com lists some very elite celebrities who survived such accidents.
Gloria Estefan
Gloria Estefan was on tour in 1990 when a semi-truck crashed into her tour bus on a Pennsylvania highway. She fractured her spine and had two titanium rods implanted to stabilize her spinal column with hopes of walking and singing again. Just a year of physical therapy later, Estefan made a full recovery and returned to tour just 10 months later.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger survived a massive motorcycle accident that hospitalized him for several days in 2001, though not without breaking six of his ribs.
His chest hit the windshield of his bike as he swerved to avoid a car that stopped short in front of him. Only five years later, a car backed out in front of him while he was driving his bike. Schwarzenegger only received 15 stitches on his lip, but maybe he should just stick to pumping iron.
Niki Taylor
Supermodel Niki Taylor survived a car accident in 2001 that changed her life. Taylor’s then-boyfriend, Chad Renegar, crashed their SUV into a telephone pole as he tried to answer his cell phone. Taylor’s liver was torn in half and she was in a coma for six weeks. But after years of physical therapy and 56 operations to rebuild her spine, Taylor survived.
Gary Busey
Actor Gary Busey may be the most infamous accident survivor. After picking up his Harley from the repair shop in 1988, he slid on a patch of gravel, flipped over the handlebars of his bike, and hit his head on the curb.
He wasn’t wearing a helmet.
Not only did Busey fracture his skull, but doctors feared that he would suffer permanent brain damage due to the amount of internal bleeding. After 33 days in a coma, Busey survived without permanent damage and is now an activist for helmets and injury prevention.
Stevie Wonder
On August 6, 1973, Stevie Wonder was in a car crash while on tour in North Carolina. During the accident, his car hit a logging truck. Some reports say that a log crashed through the windshield and hit Wonder, while others say the bed of the truck crashed through the car. Either way, the impact knocked Wonder into a coma for four days and permanently impaired his sense of smell. Despite the crash, Wonder was back in concert in March 1974 and became a more spiritual man.
George Lucas
Can you imagine a world without Star Wars? The best-selling film series almost never happened as George Lucas was nearly killed as a teenager.
Three days before he was set to graduate from high school, the car-racing enthusiast was in a car crash which hospitalized him for nearly three weeks. “You can’t have that kind of experience and not feel that there must be a reason why you’re here,” Lucas ruminates in an interview.
“I realized I should be spending my time trying to figure out what that reason is and trying to fulfill it.” The force must have been with him.
